Astronomy
Last week I attended an International Astronomical Union conference on Active Galactic Nuclei, hosted by the Armenian Academy of Sciences. Over dinner, Pepa Masegosa Gallegoa, woman astronomer from Spain, described some of the initiatives her country has undertaken to improve the gender ratio in the sciences in her country.
The ?stop the clock? for grants/fellowships/etc. seems like an excellent idea (and relatively easy) to implement here in the U.S. ? for example, for postdoc fellowships that are limited to applicants within X number of years post-Ph.D. and for awards like the NSF early CAREER Award.
Dear readers, if this seems like a good idea to you as well, please post your support (and suggestions). This will help provide fuel for making a case to the AAS CSWA and upwards to pursue this. It may be that 'stop the clock' is already in place for some of these awards. If this is the case, definitely post here. Having examples will be very helpful.
With all this said, the heartbreaking aspect of these positive initiatives in Spain is that the current economic situation is such that there will be 0 new permanent position hires in astronomy this year and only 11 new astronomy Ph.D. students at Spanish institutions funded this year. Astronomy faculty in Spain tread carefully and thoughtfully when they recruit both men and women into the field, given the current situation.
Websites to check out:
Spanish Astronomical Society's Committee of Women and Science
Spanish Scientific Council tracking statistics
Spanish Association of Women in Science and Technology
^1 For an international comparison of family leave policies (which provides food for thought for our current unacceptable situation in the U.S.), check out this previous WiA post.
^2 For more details, see the excellently written post summarizing a number of different research results on unconscious bias
- Posted by Laura Trouille, CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University and Astronomer at the Adler Planetarium.
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Each year postdoc applicants ask -- besides the NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, are there other astronomy postdoctoral opportunities in which education/outreach efforts are explicitly included and valued as part of your effort? Below is the list I've...
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A friend (thanks Diego Fazi!) recently posted on facebook the image to the left, showing various national policies for the number of weeks provided for maternity leave. Click here for the raw data. Yes, men and women in other countries face other...
Astronomy
Inspiring New Policies from Spain for Gender Parity in STEM
Last week I attended an International Astronomical Union conference on Active Galactic Nuclei, hosted by the Armenian Academy of Sciences. Over dinner, Pepa Masegosa Gallegoa, woman astronomer from Spain, described some of the initiatives her country has undertaken to improve the gender ratio in the sciences in her country.
- Equal ratio of men and women on review panels, committees, etc.
- Concerted effort to increase the number of women in Spain?s Academy of Science. Just this past year, the number has risen from a few percent to ~15 percent!
- Four month paid family leave for both parents (this is not new to Spain, but I still wanted to include it in their list of positive policies)^1.
- Providing a ?stop the clock? equivalent for grants/fellowships/etc. restricted to applicants within a certain number of years post a given career stage. ?Stop the clock?, in this case, refers to providing an additional year for each child past the usual date you can apply for these awards.
- Recommending and encouraging that parents place the year of when they have a child on to their CVs, so that it becomes a normal part of the process to take into account the impact of having a child on productivity.
The ?stop the clock? for grants/fellowships/etc. seems like an excellent idea (and relatively easy) to implement here in the U.S. ? for example, for postdoc fellowships that are limited to applicants within X number of years post-Ph.D. and for awards like the NSF early CAREER Award.
Dear readers, if this seems like a good idea to you as well, please post your support (and suggestions). This will help provide fuel for making a case to the AAS CSWA and upwards to pursue this. It may be that 'stop the clock' is already in place for some of these awards. If this is the case, definitely post here. Having examples will be very helpful.
With all this said, the heartbreaking aspect of these positive initiatives in Spain is that the current economic situation is such that there will be 0 new permanent position hires in astronomy this year and only 11 new astronomy Ph.D. students at Spanish institutions funded this year. Astronomy faculty in Spain tread carefully and thoughtfully when they recruit both men and women into the field, given the current situation.
Websites to check out:
Spanish Astronomical Society's Committee of Women and Science
Spanish Scientific Council tracking statistics
Spanish Association of Women in Science and Technology
^1 For an international comparison of family leave policies (which provides food for thought for our current unacceptable situation in the U.S.), check out this previous WiA post.
^2 For more details, see the excellently written post summarizing a number of different research results on unconscious bias
- Posted by Laura Trouille, CIERA Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University and Astronomer at the Adler Planetarium.
- Astronomy Postdoctoral Positions Where Epo Is Explicitly Included & Valued
Each year postdoc applicants ask -- besides the NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, are there other astronomy postdoctoral opportunities in which education/outreach efforts are explicitly included and valued as part of your effort? Below is the list I've...
- Advice: When To Raise A Family
CSWA convened a panel at the January 2008 AAS meeting in Austin where astronomers at various stages in their careers described the way in which they made their decisions about when to raise a family and how their choices have had an impact on their careers....
- Too Few Women Fellows Down Under
I read a World View article in Nature this week (2 May 2013) that shocked me. It is about how few women there are in the Australian Academy of Science and was written by Douglas Hilton, head of the Department of Medical Biology at University of...
- Paid Parental Leave For Graduate Students
For my first post to the Women in Astronomy Blog, I would like to describe some activities that the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy is undertaking with regard to parental leave policies for graduate students. When I joined the CSWA last...
- Family Leave - International Comparison
A friend (thanks Diego Fazi!) recently posted on facebook the image to the left, showing various national policies for the number of weeks provided for maternity leave. Click here for the raw data. Yes, men and women in other countries face other...